


i'll tell you a story (and it goes something like this)

by bellabeatrice



Series: Bella's Parkner Week 2019 [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Fairy Tale Elements, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-08-09 22:29:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20124865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellabeatrice/pseuds/bellabeatrice
Summary: It starts with once upon a time, and it ends with happily ever after. Two boys grow up dreaming of fairytales and love, and they find it in each other.Parkner Week 2019 Day Four: “His Shield is the Size of a Dinner Plate” / First Kiss / Family





	i'll tell you a story (and it goes something like this)

**Author's Note:**

> I love my fluffy babies, but I’m a diehard for angst. It’s not too heavy in this one, but I’ve got more to come this week. Enjoy!

“It starts with once upon a time,” Abbie whispers from memory, as she presses a tender kiss to Harley’s bruised knuckles. 

“And it ends with happily ever after,” Morgan says, closing the book of bedtime stories she reads to Peter when he wakes from his nightmares.

#

Harley thinks he knows what love is. He is three years old and climbing into the hospital bed with his mama to poke his newborn sister’s face. The warm feeling he gets in his chest as Mama kisses his forehead might just be love.

His dad used to say he loved them. He’d say it every night to each of them as they went to bed. For Harley, his dad would swing him up in the air and say the words before tossing him into bed. Harley is five years old, and he’s tucking Abbie in all by himself. He has to sing her lullabies because Mama won’t stop crying, and Dad hasn’t been home for weeks to make her stop. It’s getting harder and harder to pretend he ever will come back. How can people who say they love you just leave you like that?

#

Peter thinks he knows what love is. He is three years old and blowing out his birthday candles while his parents cheer. Mom takes about a hundred pictures while Dad ruffles his hair, and Peter feels like he’s on top of the world. He thinks that must be love.

His parents leave him with a simple goodbye and an exclamation of love. They kiss him goodbye and promise to see him soon. Peter is five years old, and people are crying at the sight of him. One bold person says it’s a pity that he’ll never see his parents again, but Peter closes his eyes and pretends. Surely people who love you don’t just leave.

#

As two little boys hide shivering, sniffling, sobbing under blankets, they think maybe love isn’t so simple after all.

#

When Mama stops crying at night, she reads. It starts by Harley crawling into her bed because Abbie’s having a nightmare and won’t stop crying. She picks him up, and they go sit in Abbie’s room to wake her up. Then she pulls a thick book from the bookcase and reads to them in a quiet yet powerful voice. Harley doesn’t think her voice has been this steady since Dad left.

“Once upon a time…”

#

Peter has nightmares. He dreams of fire, screaming, and the feeling of falling. Worst of all, he hears his parents' voices. Aunt May is always there to dry his tears. She picks him up and puts him in her lap. Then, she picks up a book from his bedside table. Peter finds solace in her voice.

“Once upon a time…”

#

There are two boys in this world who stop crying and start dreaming. Stories of princes, princesses, and magical beasts fill their heads.

#

Harley meets his fairy godmother at eleven years old. Tony Stark stumbles into the garage, and in an instant, Harley’s life changes. The old man is kind of an awful fairy godmother. He’s broken and lost, but beneath it all, he’s good-hearted. He gives Harley a bunch of amazing new stuff that the boy can’t even comprehend, but he also gives him a fighting chance.

Tony Stark leaves. Fairy godmothers can’t always be around after all, but they always come back.

#

Peter is cursed when he is fourteen years old. A radioactive spider bites him, leaving him in a new body with new abilities and a whole lot of pain.

The spider bite isn’t the only curse. When Ben dies before his eyes, in Peter’s arms, the boy is sure that the universe too has cursed him, cursed him to lose all of his loved ones until he learns a lesson.

#

The plot twists, the plot thickens, but the story of two boys marches on. It seems impossible to live a story like in a book, but the fact remains that every life is a story, and every life deserves a fairytale. The only difference is how it ends.

Life goes on. Two boys spin their stories, and the hands of fate - or maybe Tony Stark - intertwine them. They listen to and read fairytales, and they learn the stories by heart. The universe changes constantly; a storm is brewing, but in the center of it all is two boys and their fairytales.

#

Half of the universe crumbles into ash. Tony Stark stands amidst the ruins and cries for the two boys he lost.

#

Half of the universe is reborn. Tony Stark lies in the midst of the battlefield and takes his last breath.

#

When all is said and done, two teenage boys stand by the edge of a lake and watch the sun go down. Somehow, their hands intertwine. It doesn’t take the pain away, it doesn’t stop the tears, but it makes breathing just a little easier. It’s enough for right now.

Harley knows he was meant to find Peter. He knows because Peter makes him feel like he’s on fire, sets him ablaze with a simple look or a gentle touch. Peter is the stuff fairytales are made of.

Peter knows he was meant to find Harley. He knows because Harley makes him feel like he’s floating, making him soar with the hint of a smile or a hand in his. Harley is the stuff fairytales are made of.

#

There are two boys learning how to heal and the question they need answered, the question that has been stamped on their hearts since the beginning of their tale. “What is love?”

#

Pepper sits with her two sons, whom she doesn’t know how she has gained. They flip through a scrapbook of memories. “It’s the story of a man with a big brain and an even bigger heart, the story of a woman who loved him because he made her happy. They were all each other had, and even when they had more, they were all each other wanted.” He was all she had, and now she doesn’t even have him, but if she chooses to have them, as she will, she has a daughter, two sons, and countless friends to lean on.

Leah wakes Harley up early in the morning to cook breakfast together. “It’s the story of two kids who got in over their heads. They promised that if they would make foolish choices, they might as well stick with each other to see the consequences too.” It goes unsaid that the promise was broken, but the sentiment stands. 

May waits up for Peter to come swinging in through the window after patrol and slides a platter of watermelon towards him. “It’s the story of a girl blinded by infatuation and the boy who saved her from a bad situation. They saved each other many times, but-” She cuts off and looks away. She couldn’t save him the one time it really mattered. 

Bucky brings his arm for maintenance to the boys when he can’t be bothered to go to Wakanda, and he talks to them as they work. “It’s the story of a boy who never knew how to step down from a fight and the boy who always came and dragged his ass out of sticky situations. That boy, his shield was the size of a dinner plate, but he tried to protect his entire world with it.” Then he left the other boy behind, but Bucky’s learning to move on. 

Ned sits with his friends and watches Betty flirt with her physics partner across the cafeteria. “It’s the story of a summer fling in faraway places, where attraction is only an illusion.”

MJ goes to Wakanda for a summer and comes back glowing. “It’s the story of a princess who doesn’t really need saving, and her mace-wielding knight who sometimes saves her, anyway.”

#

The time comes when the two boys are filled with stories, and they have to finish their own. They meet by a lake and watch the sun go down.

“It starts with once upon a time,” Harley says, cupping Peter’s face gently. 

Peter pulls Harley closer. “And it ends with happily ever after.”

Lips touch, hearts melt, and the world falls away until nothing is left but two boys who learned how to love and found love in each other.

#

The end.

**Author's Note:**

> Catch me on Tumblr @bellaxbeatrice


End file.
